Libyan Osban by Inas Alkhallas
Hi I am Inas a mother of three beautiful children. I love cooking and recently my hobby is making cakes. Today I would like to present to you one of the most popular meals served in Libya, especially during Eid al-Adha and Ramadan, served with Libyan soup or couscous.
Osban is a traditional Libyan sausage. The sausage is stuffed with rice and spring onions, as well as lamb meat, chopped liver, and other lamb parts.
Ingredients:
5-6 piece Sheep’s intestines
500g lamb liver and lamb heart finely diced
250g of finely chopped lamb meat
2 tbsp tomato paste
½ cup of olive oil
2 medium finely chopped tomatoes
4 cups finely chopped fresh parsley
3cusp finely chopped spring onions
1cup finely chopped fresh mint
1 and a 1/2 cups of short grain rice washed, soaked for 10-15 minutes and drained
1 tablespoon each of: dried mint, black pepper, ground cayenne pepper, turmeric, salt
Wash the intestines with water several times, put them in a bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice/vinegar, and leave for 10 minutes, then rinse well.
In a large bowl mix well all the stuffing ingredients together.
Stuff the casings, leaving room for the expansion of the rice.
Tie off with thread to seal off the casings, at both ends. You can also use cotton string to tie each sausage at intervals (like a sausage link) to create smaller Osban.
Prick each sausages at intervals with a needle - be thorough to prevent the Osban bursting while cooking.
Put the osban in large pot, pour enough boiling water to cover the sausages (about 3cm above osban level).
Add 1 tb salt, 1/2 tb cayenne pepper and tb 1/2 turmeric.
Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium. cook for about one hour (prick osban again with needle if it floats).
Remove the osban pieces and place them under the grill or fry in little oil until browned.
The sausages are cut into more manageable osban segments before serving.
It is best to serve osban with couscous and salad, with a piece of lemon on the side.
I hope you enjoy this traditional Libyan food